


Eavesdropping

by Amie33



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M, Implied Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-09
Updated: 2013-12-09
Packaged: 2018-01-04 04:39:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1076628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amie33/pseuds/Amie33
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The flats they live in while shooting for Who have very thin walls, and they can hear almost everything - Arthur’s mind and memory of the room does the rest. He can totally picture the scene; there are other bangs and scratchings against the wall and he imagine clothes being taken off between passionate snogging. Then they must leave the surface of the wall, and he can hear a table being knocked. Shoes fly and hit a pile of magazines that fall on the floor. A glass drop, and there are giggles, suddenly cut by a distinct moan. There is no doubt of what’s happening inside. Matt and his date are about to shag.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eavesdropping

**Author's Note:**

  * For [leiascully](https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/gifts).



> A few days ago I was telling Leaiscully on her wonderful fic Allez viens, that I'd had the idea of a fic for a long while in which Karen and Arthur would discover about Matt and Alex because of the noises those two would make... After that I couldn't think about anything else, and then fic happened.  
> Also I only put a T rating, because everything is, as the title and the summary suggests, only implied. And this is totally unbeta'd so please forgive me for the mistakes.  
> I hope you're gonna enjoy!

Arthur knocks at the door and doesn’t wait for Karen to answer before he enters, pushing the knob with his elbow as his hands are busy with thai takeaway. He's kicking the door close with his feet when the Scottish woman finally appears (out of the bathroom he assumes, the tip of her hair still wet from a shower).

“Arthur!" she greets him with relief, "I was afraid you wouldn’t come either.”

He frowns as he lays the different paper bags on the coffee table. “Did someone cancel?”

Karen sighs dramatically as she sits on the sofa and doesn’t wait to take a bag, opening it . “They did.”

“They? Did they _both_ cancel?”

"Yes.” He sighs as he leans in to glance inside Karen’s bag. He’s about to pick a piece of chicken but she hits him with her chopsticks and he backs up. “Alex will only arrive tomorrow,” she explains, “she had a last minute appointment in L.A. or something.”

“Oh.”

Karen looks disappointed and he totally understands why. They haven’t seen Alex for a few months now, and they are all happy to know she will be back on set. It’s always more fun when Alex in filming with them, and even more since they discovered who River Song was - the Ponds all together. And they really all feel like a family, him, Karen, Alex and Matt. The perfect team TARDIS, that continues even when there’s no camera filming. Karen always organises parties when Alex is here, or sometimes quieter evenings, simple dinners when they all complain about the absolutely exhaustion they are in and laugh about anecdotes that happened during their day. It’s another routine and he likes it. He knows Matt and Karen do too. Actually, the dinner tonight was to celebrate Alex coming back with them.

“I’ve bought her favourite desserts,” he sighs and Karen shakes her head.

“Too bad for her. We ate them all.” she replies possessively. She takes another bag and swallows a couple of noodles.

“What about Matt?” Arthur asks, and Karen gestures in exasperation.

“Said he had a date.”

“A date?” He opens his eyes wide, not knowing what surprises him the most: the fact that Matt has a date, of the fact that Karen waits for him to ask to tell him. She must be very angry at Matt. Usually she would have harass him to know all the details, and Arthur would have known every single of them by the time he entered her flat.

“Yes, a _date_ ,” she highlights the word angrily, the Scottish accent almost completely deforming the word, “Didn’t want to say who it was, and why she was so important he had to cancel barely half an hour before our dinner.”

“It’s serious then?” Arthur asks, even more surprised. Matt hasn’t told anything, to anyone apparently if he believes Karen’s face.

“It must be…”

“He hasn’t dated for, what? Months?”

“It feels like years,” Karen emphasises, “and the last one was a complete failure…”

“Do you think he has been with her all this time?” Arthur wonders aloud, frowning as he chews a piece of chicken, trying to remember Matt’s behaviour those last few months and to guess if there were clues he missed - that they all missed.

“I don’t know,” Karen almost shouts at him and he knows that it means she doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. Matt hasn’t told her, and it’s one of her best friends; the man would have to work a long time to make it up to her…

“It’s just you and me, then?” Arthur asks and Karen’s face lights up suddenly. She smiles, standing up and he wonders what’s she doing.

“You and me,” she reaches for something in her open-plan kitchen and face him triumphantly, “and tequila.”

Matt and Alex will regret not to be there, he thinks.

x.

They have finished eating (even if a lot of food remains; the dinner was made for four people after all, not for two) and are drinking their first shot of tequila while talking about everything and anything, when they hear chuckles in the corridor. Karen almost immediately stops speaking and lets go of her slice of lemon.

“It’s him.”

Arthur wonders for a second what she’s talking about, when he hears the laughter again and recognise them as Matt’s. Matt’s, and a woman’s...

“He’s back?” he asks, but Karen shushes him with a finger on his lips. She stands up and tiptoes until she reaches her front door, kneeling and placing her face in front of the lock.

“Karen, you’re not--” She shoots an angry look at him again and he shuts him mouth immediately. She turns back and looks through the keyhole again.

“I can’t see them,” she whispers, and even if he finds her a bit ridiculous, he has to admit his curiosity is pricked. He sighs and sits next to her on the floor in front of her door.

“They must have arrived at his flat already,” he explains as he puts his ear against the wood. At first he can’t hear anything, voices coming from far away and he doesn’t understand what’s they’re saying exactly. He suspects Matt and mysterious-girl to whisper; surely they have realised Karen and he would die to know who was there and what they were doing.

Then he can hear a key clicking, and Matt’s door opens. A few seconds later, and after a last giggle, he hears it closing. He sighs as he pushes back.

“They’ve entered his flat.”

Karen immediately turns her head around the room. “He’s next door,” she whispers, “which means our walls are connected in the --”

She can’t finish her sentence before there’s a bang coming from the kitchen. Karen smiles, and before Arthur can even blink she’s ran to the wall she shares with Matt and is now placing her ear on it. He sighs before following her.

“Take the bottle,” she stops him, and he grabs the tequila as another bang echoes.

“Good lord, it seems to be hot in there,” Karen giggles and Arthur feels like he’s rolling his eyes to her. She’s not planning to spend the night listening to Matt and his date, is she?

“Don’t be prude! Next time he’ll tell us, and maybe I won’t be spying on him,” she argues and he realises he must have said his thoughts aloud. She snaps the bottle off his hands and he sighs in defeat, sitting and facing her as he places his ear on the wall too.

Karen didn’t lie, just by the noises he can tell Matt and his date have a passionate reunion. There’s another bang on the wall, then scratching and he can almost hear a faint whimper.

“Karen,” he whispers, trying to dissuade her a last time but she shakes her head, gulping directly at the bottle of tequila instead before holding it out. He looks at it, then shrugs and take a sip. He would never admit it to her, but he’s as curious as her to know who is this date.

Things get more intense in Matt’s apartment. The flats they live in while shooting for Who have very thin walls, and they can hear almost everything - Arthur’s mind and memory of the room does the rest. He can totally picture the scene; there are other bangs and scratchings against the wall and he imagine clothes being taken off between passionate snogging. Then they must leave the surface of the wall, and he can hear a table being knocked. Shoes fly and hit a pile of magazines that fall on the floor. A glass drop, and there are giggles, suddenly cut by a distinct moan. There is no doubt of what’s happening inside. Matt and his date are about to shag.

Arthur slowly pulls away from the wall, but even then he can hear the muffled noises of pleasure coming from the other side of the room. Karen is still pressed against the partition, giggling.

“They’re moving,” she whispers, and he wonders why she even bothers speaking so low. She could probably shout right now and Matt and the girl wouldn’t realise it; they are far too busy to pay attention. Before he can tell her, she has jumped on her feet, the bottle of tequila back in her hand. She grabs his sleeve and tugs him up with her, dragging in through the apartment.

“They’re going into the bedroom,” she explains and he stops, shaking his head.

“Wait, Karen, no.” She faces him, crossing her arms.

“No what?”

“We can…” he shakes his head even more. He can’t believe she is even thinking of doing that. “We can’t listen to Matt having sex!”

“And why not?”

“What? Because! You... Karen!” He gestures, at lack of words. “It’s not something I should debate with you. You don’t listen to friends shagging, that’s all.”

She shakes her head and he knows, he’ll lose this battle. He has lost it before he even knew he fought it. “Matt kept his date secret _to me_ , and now he dares coming back home with her, in his flat next to mine. It’s provocation Darvill. I won’t let him. I need to know.” She doesn’t add it but Arthur knows very well, it’s going to be her revenge. She’s going to collect all the embarrassing pieces of information she can, and then tease Matt with them for weeks, maybe months. He should feel sorry for his friend, but at the same time he can’t; Matt totally knew what he risked, having secrets for Karen, and then teasing her with them right in front of her eyes (or her ears, as it happens). And the guy is obviously having a lot of fun currently, it is probably worth everything Karen could say.

“Right, right, go on,” he finally surrenders. He’s about to add that he won’t follow her but apparently he has no choice, as she drags him once more, and the next thing he knows he’s sitting on her bed, moving pillows so they can get closer to the wall. But it’s not really necessary, they don’t need to put their ears on the partition to hear what’s happening. The volume of the moans have increased since they left the kitchen, Matt’s grunts punctuating the gasps and low groans of his date. Arthur thinks it’s only the beginning, and wonders how noisy they will be in a couple of minutes.

He doesn’t have to wait long, a yelp suddenly echoing as Matt’s mattress creaks, and he guesses they have finally found the way to the bed. With his ear close to the wall, he can hear the ruffle of the sheets, and then comes the first real cry of pleasure from the girl. Arthur closes his eyes, trying not to imagine with too many details what causes the gasps and whimpers that come from the other bedroom.

“Oh my god, Matt,” are the first distinct words that come to their ears, the ‘a’ of Matt’s name a little longer than necessary as it turns into a deeper moan. She gasps then, and Arthur imagines her trying to catch her breath, before she continues her encouragements. “Yes, yes, darling, there.”

He frowns then, suddenly uneasy. It’s not the fact that he’s listening to one of his best friend having sex that annoys him (and if everything he can hear is true, Matt has nothing to be embarrassed about), but it’s something else. He feels like he knows the voice of his date

. As she keeps crying, almost mewling as she begs Matt, “faster, deeper,” the sensation grows and Arthur is almost sure about it; he knows her.

“Bloody hell,” Karen swears next to him, totally unaffected by the situation, “he’s not some kind of sex god, is he?”

Arthur blinks at her before reaching for the tequila and taking a quick sip.

“What, what’s wrong?” Karen asks as the couple in the next room keeps up, the woman’s voice getting louder (if such thing is possible).

“I think I know her,” Arthur confesses and Karen frowns.

“Do you? Who is she?”

“I don’t know,” he admits, “I can’t remember, the sounds she makes are a bit distracting…”

Karen nods, and when she puts her ear back on the wall she seems to be more focused. “I think you’re right,” she finally agrees, “I think I know her too.”

Arthur gulps, pulling back from the wall. “Maybe we should stop. If we both know them…”

“No, absolutely not. It’s exactly the reason why we need to continue. It means both Matt and her hasn’t told us anything, and they should have. Don’t you want to know who around us has been dating Matt?”

Arthur doesn’t reply, lost in his thoughts as he tries to find who it could be. He thinks about the different girls Karen, Matt and he know, working on set, common friends, but he can’t put a name on the voice.

In the next room, the woman’s voice seems to have reach its highest volume, and they can hear her gasps a few times before she totally falls apart, moaning Matt’s name again and again until the only thing left is her erratic breathing.

Silence follows, while Karen and Arthur looks at each other expectantly, and after a few seconds they can hear the couple moving again; the sound of sheets being pulled, the mattress creaking, and then more moans and sighs of satisfaction. It’s not only the girl this time, they can distinctly hear Matt groaning every now and then, his voice deep and slightly trembling with pleasure.

They can tell the exact moment their bodies join, a sudden gasp coming from both Matt and his lover at the same time, followed by a second of silence. Then the moans increased, and Arthur and Karen can almost hear the sound of friction caused by their lovemaking, before it’s covered by another one. They both jump in surprise as a bang comes the wall separating them from the other apartment, and then something hits rhythmically the wall again and again as the mattress creaks even louder. The couple keeps speaking as they fuck, “I miss you,” and “you’re gorgeous” and other words that can’t be clearly heard over the sound of the bed on the wall.

Karen covers her mouth, unable to stop giggle. “Oh my god, they’re going to break the wall and land in my room.”

Arthur snorts, and then the image of Matt and his mysterious date coming through the wall and shagging right on Karen’s bed is too much, and he starts laughing with her. It loosens the atmosphere, and he almost forgets what’s happening next to them. He’s totally out of breath and so is Karen, the situation totally awkward and he guesses he will remember this night for a long time. He and his friend spying on Matt as he’s having what sounds like the best fuck of his life. But he has to admit, this is one of the funniest thing he’s ever done.

Except suddenly he doesn’t want to laugh anymore.

“Oh yes, Alex, come for me, love.”

Arthur freezes as he hears the words, and next to him so does Karen. They both look at each other, petrified, the couple in the next room totally oblivious to the reaction their last sentence caused, moaning even more.

“Did he say…” Arthur starts, and then stops. He can’t wrap his head around the new piece of information.

“It can’t be,” Karen shakes her head, and Arthur realises they have both pull away from the wall. Unfortunately it doesn’t stop the sounds of the shag to reach their ears.

“It’s not Alex,” Arthur tries to rationalise. “She’s not even in the same country.”

“Unless she lied,” Karen glances at him with panic. Because they can try to deny the truth, but they both know. It is totally Alex, their costar, their friend, that Matt is currently fucking. Now that they've heard her name, they _know_ the familiar voice belongs to her.

“No, no, no no no,” Karen repeats, retreating as far away from the wall as possible without falling from her bed. “I don't... Matt and Alex, it's not possible."

As to contradict her, more gasps echo in the bedroom, Alex and Matt's name cried almost at the same time, and all their doubts vanish. Arthur gulps while Karen covers her face.

"Darvill, we can't..."

Whatever she's about to say is lost as the sounds coming from Matt's room totally invade their ears, a mixing of cries and grunts, an explosion of pleasure that seems to have no end. Karen presses her hands on her ears but Arthur can't move, frozen as he realises it's Matt and Alex, _Matt and Alex_ , their friends, their co-stars they would have to face at work in the morning and the day after... How will they be able to face them, everyday from now, without thinking of tonight?

After a while (how long, he can't tell) he realises the moans from next door have subsided, but there's still a low sound that seems to come from the room he's in. He turns his gaze away from Karen's wall, witness of their shock, to find her whimpering, her hands still on her ears.

"Is it over?" she asks and Arthur nods. "Oh god, oh god, I can't believe it. They... Arthur they... oh my god, I have _images_ now..." She shakes her head as she gets off the bed, and Arthur realises it's probably the best thing to do - to retreat. He follows her without a question as she exits the room.

"I will never be able to look at him again. And I need a new flat. I can't... I can't stay here knowing what they are doing next to my room. Oh lord. I need a drink." She halts suddenly, realising that in their haste they totally forgot the bottle of tequila.

"I'll get it. Darvill, open the bar, there must be vodka left. Or whisky. I don't care. Let's just pray there's enough alcohol for us to forget."

He hopes there is.

x.

Snuggled against Matt's chest, the weight of his arms around her waist and the feeling of his kisses on her head, Alex sighs happily.

"Never stay away from me that long again," Matt whispers and she nods, pressing a kiss on his sternum.

"I hope so. But the reunion shag was totally worth it."

"True," he replies, two fingers of his pushing her head up to kiss her lips, "but I want to ravish you everyday."

She chuckles and nods before resting her head back on his chest.

"Don't you think we've been a bit loud? Karen may have heard..."

"Oh, believe me, Karen has heard everything," he chuckles. "She harassed me this afternoon to know why I couldn't go to her party, and she was dying of frustration when I just said I was with someone. She was probably eavesdropping." He laughs even more. "I hope she wasn't disappointed."

"Matt!" Alex scolds him with a smack on his chest, but she would lie if she said she didn't find the idea funny. "You must have shock the poor girl."

"Oh, I hope so. She would probably never spy on anyone ever after that." He laughs, and they laugh even more the next morning. They meet Karen and Arthur who clearly avoid looking at them, their hungover unable to erase the memories of what happened the night before.  


End file.
